In particular, in the course of the description, reference shall be made to a cartoning machine, suitable for inserting cosmetic or pharmaceutical products (pills, granular solutions, eye drops, creams, ointments, dissolved solutions, syrups or others), together with one or more illustrative leaflets related to the physicochemical or organoleptic composition of the product, inside containers or boxes of small or medium dimensions (cartons).
Generally, horizontal or vertical loading cartoning machines are known, on the basis of the direction in which products are inserted into packages; in any case, these usually comprise a first feed line on which the blanks of the packages into which the products are to be inserted, preformed and pressed against one another, are loaded, a second feed line with the leaflets to be inserted into the packages and a third feed line from which the products to be packaged are collected.
An in-line transfer device allows each blank, held in a vertical position and moved by one or more pairs of supporting fingers, to advance from the feed line, in order to convey it to a series of subsequent stations, by means of stepping movement of the line, so that, at each machine station, specific operations to close the blank are performed before the product and relevant illustrative leaflet are inserted inside the packet and the packet is closed.
Moreover, cartoning machines are known to have a station for the detection and elimination of rejects, usually located downstream of the station for inserting the products and illustrative leaflets into the containers, to allow automatic removal of defective items from the line (for example, due to defective containers, illustrative sheets or leaflets that are missing or do not correspond to the products inserted), which are identified by means of appropriate sensors and relevant detection devices.
One of the major problems of known cartoning machines is given by the total lack of flexibility of these machines; in fact, once the line has been programmed to handle containers of pre-set dimensions (length, width, height), each time blanks of different dimensions are loaded the machine must be stopped and regulated manually, using special equipment to adjust all distances and heights relevant to the devices for movement and support in each station, in order to adapt the instruments to the overall dimensions of the package in use.
This problem is particularly important when considering the frequent pauses in operation that are required, especially when packaging different products; moreover, operations to adjust the various devices are often inconvenient, difficult and dangerous for the personnel in charge of the machine.
Finally, for operations to open out the blank in order to detach pressed or folded portions of the package, or during closure of the upper and lower tabs of the container it is also necessary to use devices (blades) of various formats, in relation to the height of the container, which can be inserted inside the container to perform the above operations.
In this case, according to the type of container being processed, the tool magazine must be fitted with the appropriate format of blade for the specific size of the container.
The aim of the present invention is, therefore, to indicate an automatic machine for packaging products inside containers, which resolves the aforesaid problems, namely to produce an automatic machine that consents variation of the format of the containers into which the products are inserted directly in-line, without requiring to interrupt the operation of the entire machine and without needing to manually adjust the distances and heights of the various devices.
Another aim of the present invention is to indicate an automatic machine for packaging products, which permits a considerable reduction of the processing times, compared to known machines and, consequently, an increase in productivity.
A further aim of the present invention is to produce an automatic machine for packaging products inside containers, which at the same time guarantees extremely safe operating conditions for the operators.
Yet another aim of the present invention is to indicate an automatic machine for packaging products inside containers, which allows the operations for personnel in charge of the machine to be simplified compared to the known technique and which allows production costs to be decreased, using simple technologies and relatively inexpensive components, by virtue of the advantages attained.
These aims, according to the present invention are attained by producing an automatic machine for packaging products inside containers or cartons (11), comprising a plurality of stations (15-21, 21A, 21B, 21C, 23-28) in a line (13), at each of which at least one operation to package the products is performed, by means of actuators (AT, AT1, AT2 . . . ), starting from at least one blank, which is collected from a magazine (12), conveyed to a loading station (15) and transferred, according to a pre-established route (10), from one station to the next station, before being unloaded at specific reject (27) or storage (28) stations, wherein said actuators (AT, AT1, AT2 . . . ) are managed by an electronic axes control system, which automatically regulates positioning and movement of said actuators (AT, AT1, AT2 . . . ), on the basis of information relevant to at least one dimension (A, B, C) of said carton (11), which is set by an operator (OP) on an electronic processor (PC) of said axes control system, in order to allow the format of said carton (11) to be changed from a pre-established minimum value to a maximum value of overall dimensions of said carton (11) automatically, wherein said actuators (AT AT1, AT2) comprise pushing devices for said blanks and said cartons (11), inserting devices for products and illustrative leaflets, stamping devices (PT, TC) and devices for generating and printing bar codes on said cartons (11), devices to detect and process coherent codes, equipment (ST) for replacing blades (SP) that can be collected from a tool magazine (MU) and wherein said actuators (AT, AT1, AT2) move in relation to the size of said carton (11) being constructed.
Advantageously, reference is made to a particular packaging machine, namely a vertical loading cartoning machine, known to be capable of packaging products contained inside bottles or blister packs (cosmetic or pharmaceutical products) into cartons with small and medium dimensions.
In particular, the vertical loading cartoning machine, according to the invention, can be used for in-line processing of a variable number of cartons, from 100 to 100,000, without any difference whatsoever.
In addition to carrying out all operations normally performed by known vertical loading cartoning machines, it also allows variation of the format of the container being processed, simply by entering the dimensions of the sides of the container on a keyboard of an operating system which processes the data entered and sends appropriate commands, either directly or via a PLC, to an axes control device, which regulates the position and operations of all the stations of the cartoning machine.
In preferred although unlimiting forms of implementation, the operator of the cartoning machine according to the invention can change the format of the container from a minimum of 15xc3x9715xc3x9750 mm to a maximum of 120xc3x97120xc3x97250 mm, in extremely short times (up to 10 seconds) and automatically, merely by keying in the dimensions of the sides using a keyboard.